


Living Her Best (un)Life

by SilverMoon53



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: (i dont outright say that but lbr she is and i write her as Extra Autsitic), Autistic Entrapta (She-Ra), Catra needs a break from those two, Entrapta just wants to cause trouble, Entrapta-centric, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01, Scorpia wants to draw and hug her friends, although catra and scorpia are both major characters, god shes such a mood that way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 11:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18603445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMoon53/pseuds/SilverMoon53
Summary: Entrapta learns of her own death.It goes surprisingly well.





	Living Her Best (un)Life

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been trying to figure out how Entrapta is going to respond when she finds out the others think she's dead. I came up with two very different ways it could go.
> 
> This is the fun one.

“So, I’m pretty sure the Princesses think you’re dead,” Catra said as she walked in the room. It was nearing the end of another day in the Fright Zone, which meant that Entrapta was tinkering with her latest project while Scorpia practiced drawing. Catra had been away on a recon mission, but expected home before lights out, so Entrapta and Scorpia were waiting for her before going to their shared sleeping space. 

“Who, me?” Scorpia asked. “Why would they think I’m dead? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, not you,” Catra snapped. “Entrapta.” 

At the sound of her name, Entrapta finally looked up from her work. “Hmm? Yeah, you want something?”

Catra groaned and Entrapta made a mental note to try harder to pay attention when she entered a room. Catra had a tendency to announce her presence and start talking at the same time, which Entrapta had trouble processing sometimes. It was an easy enough problem to fix, even something low-tech like a bell, but Catra would never agree to that. Maybe a wireless nanobot that emits a subsonic frequency to trigger a warning when she reached a certain distance from Entrapta? That could be fun! Or-

Catra snapped her fingers in front of Entrapta’s face, causing her to jump out of her thoughts.

“Sorry!” she chirped, looking mildly apologetic at best. “I was thinking about putting a tracker on you so you stop sneaking up on me. I’m used to being the one sneaking around, not the one being snuck on.” She laughed.

“You’re not putting a tracker on me,” Catra deadpanned.

“You can put one on me!” Scorpia offered cheerfully. 

“Focus!” Catra ordered before Entrapta could reply. “Did you even hear what I said?”

Entrapta paused. She flipped her mask down and carefully said, “I heard you say words when you came in, yes.” It was true, because she had heard Catra speak. Her brain had just been too focused on her current task, and she hadn’t processed what the words may have been. Catra’s question was confusing too, _hearing_ words and _understanding_ words are two very different things, after all. 

It was like _making_ the bed versus _building_ the bed. They mean the same thing, only other people don’t seem to get that. Entrapta had stopped getting invited to sleepovers when she brought over wood and metal to make her bed.

“Hey! Etheria to Entrapta, you there?” Catra sounded impatient, but her impatient voice was so close to her regular voice that Entrapta couldn’t be sure. “The Princess didn’t just leave you behind, they left you for dead.”

“What?” Entrapta asked, finally giving her full attention to Catra. “What makes you say that?”

“A few scouts came back from Plumeria. Seems they found a statue in your honour there. It seems they think you died when they left you here.” 

“But I’m not dead,” Entrapta pointed out, flipping her mask up. Catra rolled her eyes.

“Well duh, we know that. But for whatever reason, there is a statue in your honour in Plumeria, with a plaque that has a death date for you. The other princesses all think you’re dead.” Catra’s voice wasn’t unkind, though there was a bitter tone to it that Entrapta couldn’t place. For several moments, she said nothing, eyes narrowed and eyebrows knotted as she thought. 

“The other Princesses? They all think I’m dead?” She asked at length, looking at her friends for confirmation. Catra nodded, ears back, and Scorpia gasped softly. 

“Oh, Entrapta, are you okay? Do you need a hug?” Scorpia offered.

“This is… this is…” She looked down again, struggling to find the words. 

“Are you mad? Do you want to get back at them?” Catra seemed excited at the thought, but Entrapta largely ignored her. 

“This is _fantastic!_ ” she cheered, finding her voice. 

“What?” Scorpia and Catra said together after a moment of confused silence. Entrapta laughed loudly and scrambled for her recorder. 

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun! New log, hour… hour 500-something? Who cares, the other princesses think I’m dead! I finally have the means to conduct an experiment I have wanted to for _years_. Of course, it’s too late to survey the five stages of grief, which is unfortunate, but that can result from other circumstances so it won’t be that detrimental to my study.” 

“What study?” Catra asked, her voice teetering between loud talking and yelling. Entrapta paused her rambling and turned back to face the others in the room.

“The study of what happens when I die, of course!” 

“But you’re not actually dead,” Scorpia pointed out. “Unless we’re all dead and the Fright Zone is the afterlife! Catra, are we dead?”

“Of course not! Entrapta-”

“That’s a strange question. I’m talking about the social and political ramifications of my demise.” 

“The what? Entrapta, would you just-” Catra tried again, but Entrapta was on a roll.

“Yeah! I mean, who is in charge of Dryl now? I’m the last of the royal bloodline there. And did someone take my place in the Princess Alliance? Did my death create a power scramble? What was my funeral like? Did I have one? Oooooooh, I wish I could have seen it! Did the Princesses mourn me? I would have loved to study their individual reactions to my death, do you think I could get them to replicate it?”

“I mean, probably not,” Scorpia said with a shrug. “They would have to learn you’re alive and then think you died again, and I don’t think they would have the same reaction to your second death.” 

“What is this conversation even?” Catra muttered.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Entrapta said, still ignoring Catra. “I could always try to build a time machine. Or-” She suddenly froze, her eyes wide with excitement.

“Or what?” Scorpia asked after a moment. 

“ _I can haunt people_ ,” Entrapta whispered.

“Entrapta, no,” Catra said, slamming her hand into her forehead and dragging it down her face. “You’re not _actually_ dead.” 

“They don’t know that! What are they more likely to think, that I survived or that I came back as a ghost to punish them for letting me die? Oh, it’ll be so much fun to see how each Princess responds!”

“Oh, man, I would hate to be haunted!” Scorpia chimed in, wrapping her arms around herself and shuddering. 

“Really? I would love it! Can you imagine how much you could learn from a ghost, especially if it’s the ghost of a First One!” 

“There’s no such thing as ghosts, so shut up, both of you,” Catra said, though her voice was flat as though she had given up on getting them to stop. 

“Well that’s actually an interesting theory! I suppose it depends on what you count as a ‘ghost.’ After all, if someone thinks I’m dead, wouldn’t that make me a ghost in a sense? If a ghost is just the manifestation of the deceased, but the person isn’t actually deceased, and they’re still manifested, of course, because we already have physical forms, at least until I figure out how to transfer my consciousness into a robot, but then I would still have a physical form anyway, it would just be a robot. Anyway! That would mean that from the perspective of one who believes the deceased to be actually deceased, would be seeing the deceased, which they would assume would just be a manifestation and not the original, which would make the not actually deceased but assumed to be so a ghost from the point of view of the viewer!”

Catra stared blankly back at Entrapta. Scorpia had pulled out a notebook and was scribbling wildly. Distracted, Entrapta swung behind Scorpia with her hair and stared at the notebook. Scorpia’s drawing skills had improved since the first “Super Pal Trio” drawing, and Entrapta was always eager to see her friend’s artwork. 

This time, it was a cute doodle of Entrapta as a ghost hanging over the Princesses, scaring them. Before Entrapta could comment on it, Catra snapped her fingers, taking back her attention.

“What did any of that mean?” she demanded. Entrapta grinned.

“It means there is a definition of ghost that I fit! Which means I can haunt those who think I’m dead!” 

“Y’know, I’m not sure how I was expecting you to respond to the news that your old friends think you’re dead, but this is not it.” 

“Really? How else would one respond?”

“I don’t know! Anger, maybe? Feelings of betrayal? Things like that!” 

“Why? This is a dream come true! I finally get to learn something I’ve wondered for years! Can we go on a field trip to one of the Princess Alliance kingdoms? Or Dryl? Oh, I guess we should make a plan first, figure out how I would act as a ghost. Would I be angry? Probably, I was sad when they left me behind, and ghosts tend to be angry, especially when haunting.”

“Oh! Like this?” Scorpia offered, turning her notebook around so that Entrapta and Catra could see it. She had flipped to a new page, on which she had drawn a very ghostly Entrapta looking very angry and vicious. 

“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere!” Catra perked up, reaching for the drawing.

“I’m not sure I could float like that, or get that mist, though I could always rig something up for those. Then again, since I was mostly sad when I realised they left me behind, maybe my ghost would be sad? I could sneak around and say things like ‘Whhhyyyyyyyyyy did you leeeeeave meeeeee?’” Entrapta wiggled her fingers spookily, swinging around the room and ducking behind cover as she spoke. “‘I thought we were frieeeeennnndssssss?’” 

“Yeah, like that! Give them a real scare, get back at them for leaving you!” 

“Oh, I’m not really mad about that anymore,” Entrapta said, lowering herself to the ground in from of Catra and shrugging. “It ended up being for the best. I made new friends, learned a whole bunch more than I had ever dreamed of, and now I get to learn about what happens when I die! It’s a win all around!”

“Sure,” Catra said after a pause. “Whatever. We can talk more about this in the morning. Right now, it’s late and I’m tired, so let’s just go to bed.” 

“Do you want me to brush your hair and tuck you in?” Scorpia asked, grabbing her notebook back and pulling out a brush. 

“What? No!” Catra jumped back, but Entrapta noticed her blush and the way her fur stayed flat, indicating she wasn’t actually against the idea. “Remember the personal space thing?” 

“Right, sorry.” 

“Lights out is soon, so let’s just get ready for bed. We don’t want a repeat of last week’s fiasco,” Catra continued, casting a glare at Entrapta.

“Hey! It’s not my fault that no one else keeps night vision goggles on them! How was I to know that Scorpia would mistake me for a giant bug?”

“In my defence, using your hair to move around does make you look buggish.”

“I rest my case,” Catra said, turning around to lead the way to their room. Entrapta took a second to tidy her space up then hurried after.

“Shouldn’t I practice moving around after dark?” she asked once she caught up. “Don’t ghosts usually manifest in darker places? I’ve never been a ghost before, I want to get this right.”

“You’re not actually a ghost, Entrapta.”

“Well, not to you or Scorptia of course. But if the princesses think I’m dead then from their-” Entrapta drew back and spat out some fur that had come loose from Catra’s paw. She paused and then said, “That means you want me to stop talking, right?” 

“Yes please.” 

“Lighten up, Catra. Didn’t Shadow Weaver ever tell you to respect the dead?”

“She’s not dead!” 

“And yet I’m still a ghost! I’m a paradox.”

“Man, now I’m really wondering what happened in Dryl. You were the last in the royal family, weren’t you?” 

“Yeah, but to be honest I didn’t really do much of the ruling. I had final say in a lot of matters, but mostly the courts took care of things. Dryl is a pretty small kingdom, so it doesn’t need much ruling and I spent most of my time working on my research. It’s probable that not much has changed, but it would be fun to go back and write a decree of some sort, just to see how it’s handled.”

Catra grumbled and pushed past the others, ducking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. Scorpia and Entrapta kept talking as they changed into their pajamas. 

“I don’t know much about ruling either,” Scorpia said. “Hordak takes care of all that in the Fright Zone, and I was too young to worry about that before my family joined the Horde. It sounds like a lot of work.”

“It is! But it’s not fun work, and doesn’t involve much learning about things, so I never liked it much. Robots and First Ones Tech is so much more fascinating! Wait, if I’m a ghost, that means that ghosts are real. Which means that there might be First Ones ghosts! We should go to the Whispering Woods and try to find some!”

“But aren’t you only a ghost under certain circumstances? Like only if the other princesses see you?”

“Oh, right. I supposed I could try to get them to go ghost hunting with me, but in order to do that I would have to contact them and explain the situation, which would let them know I’m alive and therefore make me not a ghost in their eyes. Catra, what do you think?” Entrapta asked as Catra came out of the bathroom. 

“I think that you’re not dead, you’re not a ghost, and that the two of you have five minutes to get in bed before lights out.” 

“She has a point,” Scorpia said. Entrapta followed her into the bathroom and kept talking as one of her bots set about brushing her hair and teeth for bed.

“Well, even if I’m not dead others can still perceive me as a ghost because they think I’m dead, and because our sense of reality is based on perception, then the argument could be made that I am dead, despite evidence to the contrary. In fact-” Entrapta stopped talking when the robot stuck a toothbrush in her mouth. 

“I don’t know, Entrapta, this is kinda confusing me,” Scorpia said, her own teeth already brushed. “Let’s just go to sleep. Like Catra said, it’s lights out soon and I’m tired. Goodnight,” she added with a yawn, exiting the bathroom. Entrapta sighed around her toothbrush and waved goodnight. 

By the time the robots finished brushing her hair, the last warning for lights out had sounded. Quickly, Entrapta swung over to her bed and wrapped herself in her cocoon of hair for sleep, with just moments to spare. 

“Goodnight,” Catra said pointedly as darkness fell on them. Entrapta tried silence her mind, ideas still running wild in her head. She heard Scorpia shifting under her blankets and Catra sigh. 

“Okay but what if in 10 years from now I don’t get invited to the next Princess Prom and I just show up?” Entrapta burst out, unable to contain her thoughts. “I’m still a princess, but I wouldn’t get an invitation. Would I be allowed in without one? What would happen if I just showed up?”

“I- I don’t know, actually,” Scorpia said after a moment. “Catra, what do you think?”

Catra sighed loudly. “I think you two need to shut up and get some sleep.”

“Hah! I don’t need sleep, I’m dead!” 

Catra groaned and covered her head with her pillow while Entrapta laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully I managed to get both this fic and the other to fit within her characterization, though I feel like this one was better in that regard. It was fun writing two fics with the same basic idea, but going in very different directions. Also I'm glad I was able to finish them both before season 2 drops, since we're probably going to see her actual reaction!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading, and as always, feel free to send me a message on my social media:  
> Writeblr blog: @silverssideblog  
> Discord: cloudcover#7167


End file.
